Case Study: Echelon Corp. achieves faster time-to-market and higher developer productivity with Actian (Versant embedded object database)

Echelon powers world’s leading control networks with the Versant FastObjects database

Echelon Corporation, maker of the LonWorks control‑networking platform used in building controls, transportation and industrial systems worldwide, needed an embedded database that fit its object‑oriented C++ application model. The challenge was to support 70+ application classes, deep inheritance and complex object relationships across networks with up to 32,000 device instances and several hundred megabytes of persistent data—without exposing low‑level storage details to OEM developers.

Echelon embedded the Versant object‑oriented database, which handled the required class hierarchies, scale and performance while offering automatic schema migration, zero administration and seamless integration with the application model. The solution cut time to market by roughly six months, saved several developer‑years, improved ongoing developer productivity, and helped deliver a robust, low‑maintenance LonWorks ecosystem deployed in millions of devices worldwide.

Echelon Corp.

Jim Von De Bur

Manager of Software Tools